What we found

We went shopping in Wellington, looking for unlabelled cosmetics. Here’s a snapshot of what was on sale.

Chemists

We visited Radius and Unichem stores. Unlabelled lip gloss and nail polish were on sale at both chains.

At a Unichem store, we found unlabelled She-brand lip gloss and nail polish. Apart from the brand name, there was little info on these products.

Unichem is part of the Pharmacybrands group. Pharmacybrands chief executive Alan Wham told us the company wasn’t aware of the new labelling rules and would be communicating with all suppliers and stores to inform them of the requirements.

Alan says when She products were introduced into stores, stockists were sent ingredient lists to attach to display stands. However, these lists have “at times gone missing”. He says sales reps have now been asked to check each store and if there is no ingredient list to attach a new one to the stand.

At a Radius Pharmacy in central Wellington, we found Maybelline’s Shiny-Licious lip gloss and Natio nail polish – both unlabelled. Radius Pharmacy’s Mike Kotlyar told us ingredients lists for these products are available at the company’s shops. In the stores we visited, we didn’t see them on display stands.

Department stores

At Farmers, Maybelline’s Shiny-Licious lip gloss turned up again – unlabelled. We also bought Max Factor’s Age Renew Foundation and Australis Lash Me Mousse Mascara. Neither product had a label listing its ingredients – and the info wasn’t provided anywhere on the display cabinet.

Farmers’ Michael Power says it will be “following up with the suppliers of these products”.

Next stop: Kirkcaldie & Stains department store, regarded as one of Wellington’s most upmarket establishments. We bought Lacoste Love of Pink Body Lotion. Lacoste costs: this bottle was $25, marked down from $56! Discounted or not, it should have had an ingredients label – and it didn’t.

Kirkcaldie’s Lyn Tait told us the store has now removed items of concern from display.

Discount stores

We also found unlabelled products in more cost-conscious stores. On sale at The $2 Shop was Lily of the Valley Eau de Toilette. This Chinese-made perfume had no label. It did have some mysterious particles – possibly dust, possibly something less savoury – floating in it. Other unlabelled perfumes were also on display.

Equally troubling was the box of Cancen Hair Colour Cream we found at The $2 Shop. The box didn’t have a list of ingredients. But when we opened it, there was a list on the tube of colour cream. Disturbingly, one of the chemicals this product contained – m-phenylenediamine – is banned from use in hair dyes and has been for some time. Selling this product is illegal. We reported it to the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) and the Ministry of Health has now requested a voluntary recall of the hair dye.

This isn’t the first time we’ve found problems with cosmetics sold at The $2 Shop in Wellington. In our 2008 hair dyes report we warned against buying another Chinese-made hair dye called Shinuo. This hair dye didn’t have a complete list of ingredients and we were concerned that it could contain chemicals declared unsafe to use.

If you find cosmetics in any shop that aren’t adequately labelled, don’t buy them.